16 May 2007

Railway reading: The Epoch Times

Sorry I missed yesterday. I didn't even think about picking up the daily reading in the morning. I'll make it up next week.

Wednesday is The Epoch Times day. This is a weekly newspaper that is published around the world in various local formats. The strength, and in fact origin, of The Epoch Times is news coverage in China. It began in 2000 as a news outlet to fill a need for uncensored news in and about China. In 2003, they expanded to include news from around the world, but still include significant news on China. For example, there is a Chinese language edition handed out alongside the English edition, and there was also an additional 'exclusive report' titled 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party'.

On the front page, I read about the Australian government's boycott of Zimbabwe cricket, the ivory trade on eBay, Tony Blair and how the UK's health system is better than Australia's.

Inside, I read about fires in California and Alaskan oil spills.

In the travel section I learned that the Great Barrier Reef was voted the best destination by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The Life section had a piece about lawn bowls.

Science & Technology covered the discovery of King Herod's tomb and reminded me to cheer on Australia as they defend their title at the RoboCup 2007.

Opinion had a column discussing Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel. In Business I read about tax cuts and home mortgages.

Arts & Entertainment had articles about Live Earth 2007 and the upcoming Sydney Writers' Festival.

Sport covered Roger Federer's split with his coach and the all South African final in the Super 14s.

And of course, sudoku.

All this and more can be found on The Epoch Times website.

Rating: Three trains. Pretty good information, although a little stale on occasion due to the weekly format.